> [mailto:CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu] On Behalf Of Gary Shannon
> In a meeting with colleagues from around the world, including
> an Englishman, a Korean and a Brazilian, he noticed that he
> and the other non-native English speakers were communicating
> in a form of English that was completely comprehensible to
> them, but which left the Englishman nonplussed.
>
> He, Jean-Paul Nerriere, could talk to the Korean and the
> Brazilian in this neo-language, and they could understand
> each other perfectly.
>
> But the Englishman was left out because his language was too
> subtle, too full of meaning that could not be grasped by the
others.
I've had this happen to me before. I was working once on a computer
in someone's office who was Norwegian. At the time he was having a
meeting with a Japanese guy. Both were speaking English but I
really couldn't understand them.